Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-08-20

our time we have no apostolic power Of
miracles
Napoleon in an address of seven minutes
thrilled his army and thrilled Europe. Christ's
Sermon on the Mount, the model sermon, was
less than eighteen minutes long at ordinary
mode Of delivery. It is not electricity scat
tered all over the sky that strikes, but cleo
tricity gathered into thunderbolt and hurled,
and it is not religious truth scattered over,
spread out over vast reach of time, but re-
ligious truth projected in compact form that
flashes light upon the soul and rives its indif-
ference.
When the religious discourse of the future
arrives in this land and i'm the Christian
church, the discourse which is to arouse the
world and startle the nations, and usher in
the kingdom, it will be brief discourse.
Hear it all theological students, all We lust
entering upon religious work all We men and
women who in Sabbath-schools and other de-
partments aretoiling for Christ and the sal
walton of immortals: Brevityl Brevity!
But l remark also that the religious dis
course of the future of which speak will he
q popular discourse. There are those in these
times who speak of popular sermon as
though there must be something wrong about
it. As these critics are dull themselves the
world gets the impression that a sermon is
good in proportion as it is stupid Christ
was the most popular preacher the world
~ Se"1 ohu NOiioiutIlliR lllt SIlldll number
OF the worlds population, had the largest
audience ever gathered. He never preached
anywhere without making great sensation.
People rushed out in the wilderness to hear
him, reckless of their physical necessities. So
great was their anxiety to hear Christ that,
taking no food with them, they would have
tainted and starved had not Christ performed
a miracle and fed them.
Why did SO many people take the truth at
Christ's hands9 Because they all understood
it. He illustrated his subject by hen and
her chickens, by a bushel measure by a hand
full of salt, by birds flight and by lily's
aroma. All the people knew what He meant
and they flocked to Him. And when the re-
ligious discourse of the future appears, it will
Andoverian, not Middletonian, but Olivetic-
plain, practical, unique, earnest-compre-
henslye of all the woes, wants, sins, sorrows
and necessities of an auditory
But when that exhortation or discourse
does come there will be a thousand cleaning
scimetars to charge on it. There are in so
many theological seminaries professors tell
ing young men how to preach, themselves
moi knowing how; and I am told that if
young man in some of our theological semi
naries says anything quaint or thrilling or
unique, faculty and students fly at him and
set,him right, and straighten him out, and
smooth him down, and chop him off, until he
says everything just as everybody else says it.
Oh, when the future religious discourse of
the Christian church arrives, all the churches
of Christ in our great cities will be thronged.
The world wants spiritual help. All who
have buried their dead want comfort. All
know themselves to be mortal and to be i'm
mortal and they want to hear about the great
future. tell you, my friends, if the people
of our great cities who have had trouble only
thought they could get practical and sym
1,atbafip half1 in tho (thricfian church fhpra
would not be a street in New York, or
Brooklyn or Chicago, or.Charleston, or Phil
adelphia, or Boston which would be passable
on the SABBATH day if their were church on
it; for all the people would press to that
asylum of mercy, that great house of comfort
and consolation.
A mother with dead babe in her arms
came to the god Veda, and asked to have her
child restored to life. The god Veda said TO
her: "You go and get handful of mustard
from a house in which there has been no
sorrow and in which there has been no
death, and | will restore your child to life"
So the mother went out, and she went from
house to house, and from home to home, look
ing for place where there had been no
sorrow and where there had been no death,
but she found none. She went back to
the god Veda and said: "My mission is a
failure you see l haven't brought the
mustard seed;' | can't find a place where
there has been no sorrow and no death"
''Oh, says the god Veda, understand your
sorrows are no worse than the sorrows of
others; we all have our griefs, and all have
Our heart-breaks.n
Laugh and the world laughs with You,
Weep. and you weep alone:
For the sad old earth must borrow Its mirth,
But has trouble enough Of its own.
We hear O great deal of discussion now ALE
over the land about why people do not go to
church. Some say il is because Christianity
is diving out. and because people do not be
lieve in the truth of Gods word, and all that.
They are false reasons The reason is because
our sermons and exhortations are not inter
esting, and practical, and helpful. Some one
might as well tell the whole truth on this sub
iect, and so | will tell it. The religious dis
course of the future, the Gospel sermon to
come forth and shake the nations and lift
people out of darkness, will be a popular SER
mon, just for the simple reason that it will
meet the woes and the wants and the ankle
ties of the people.
There are in all our denominations ecclesi-
astical mummes sitting around to frown
upon the fresh young pulpits of America, to
try TO awe them down, to cry out: Tut tut!
tut! Sensational They stand to-day preach
ing in churches that hold n Thousand people,
and there are hundred persons present, and
if they cannot have the world saved in their
way it seems as if they do not want it saved
at ALL
] do not know but the old way of making
ministers of the Gospel is better-a collegiate
education and an apprenticeship under the
care and home attention of some earnest,
aged Christian minister, the young man
getting the patrarchs spirit and assisting
him in his religious service. Young lawyers
study with old lawyers, young physicians
with old physicians. and i believe it wonld be
a great help if every young man studying
for the Gospel ministry could put himself in
the home, and heart, and sympathy, and
under the henediction and perpetual presence
of Christian minister
But ! remark again, the religious discourse
of the future will be an awakening sermon.
From alter rail to the front door step under
that sermon an audience will get up and start
for heaven. There will be in It many STAG
cato passage. 1t will not be n lullaby; it
will be a battle charge. Men will drop their
sins, for they will feel the hot breath Of pur-
suing retribution on the back of their necks.
1t will be sympathetic with all the physical
as well as the spiritual distresses Of
the world Christ not only preached but He
healed paralysis, and He healed epilepsy, and
He healed the dumb and the blind and ten
lepers.
That religious discourse Of the future will
be am everyday sermon, going right down
into every mans life, and it will teach him
how 30 vote, how to bargain, how to plough,
how TO do any work he is called to, how to
1piald frotVal and NAN and r,aucu and ward.